Friday, December 25, 2015

Season's Greetings!

(fountain pen pictured is a Sheaffer 'NoNonsense' from my California cousins :)
Next meeting: Thursday January 21, 2016 at 6:30pm at Perks pen store (5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC).
Theme : to be announced!

Thursday, November 19, 2015

October meeting photos

Many thanks to all 18 VPC members who attended our October meeting and brought items for our topic---Unique Writing Instruments! I snapped a few quick photos and VPC member Mido took some as well, so here is what our members brought for the topic:
From top to bottom: Tiffany's cool UV marker/light pen and her erasable ballpoint (both of which she demonstrated for us), Mido's solid silver Pierre Hugo fountain pen in lovely tree bark design and his Waterman fountain pen with an unusual aerometric-filler mechanism that fills from the side.
From top to bottom: Bruce's Pelikan M800 with a modified piston-filling mechanism made of plastic (not brass) which has 20% increased ink capacity, his Visconti 'Metropolis' fountain pen with a retractable nib, Bruce's amazing CONID Bulkfiller fountain pen and his highly-unusual Parafernalia fountain pen.
Top to bottom: Peter's extendable pointer/ballpoint combo, his Pilot Parallel with 6mm (!!) italic nib and his Pentel Kerry mechanical pencil, whose lead advances when you press the cap top.
Peter's Pilot Parallel in action, as shown by Tiffany. A very interesting nib and handy for making large letters (e.g. posters, signs).
From left to right: Kristina's Online fountain pen/stylus combo writing instrument, Bill K's Stipula 'Passaporto" Fountain Pen Network limited edition pen, Charles' two Acura pewter pens---a dragon fountain pen & a snake ballpoint/rollerball, Stuart's Sheaffer ' Balance' fountain pen with an unusual cross-hatched cap band, and his floaty ballpoint made by the GE Secretary Pen Co. with an Oldsmobile car floating inside. In the background is Bill's one-of-kind ballpoint pen and stand, made by a friend from some laurel wood from Bill's own backyard. Great idea for writing instrument material!
Bethany's gorgeous custom-made Edison 'Menlo' Pump Filler fountain pen. The pen was made using the material selected by Bethany, as well as her preferred nib material and nib size.
From left to right: Maja's Lamy Safari with custom-made barrel made by Penchetta Pens in Scottsdale, Arizona, an Imperial lever-filler fountain pen made to hold a spare nib at the end of the barrel (and protected by the clear blind cap--note: the spare nib is missing), a Wearever fountain pen with a Sheaffer feed and a replacement nib. The last pen isn't unusual--it's Ben R's new acquisition (New Acquisitions is always our secondary topic), a Sheaffer Imperial.
From left to right: Kiyoshi's beautiful abalone ballpoint and his very cool Staedtler self-feeding mechanical pencil (and Ben's Sheaffer Imperial, once again)

All photos by me--Maja---except for the last three (Mido's).

Friday, November 6, 2015

Fountain Pen Day 2015 ~ Friday November 6, 2015!

From the official website :
Taking place on the first Friday in November each year, Fountain Pen Day is celebrated by enthusiasts worldwide as a time to embrace, promote, and share the use of fountain pens.

How will you celebrate Fountain Pen Day? :)

Sunday, November 1, 2015

November meeting info

Well, there's only one more meeting for 2015 and it's the November one (since we don't have December meetings)...so here's what you need to know about it:

Date: Thursday November 19, 2015
Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm (the usual time...but members may arrive a little bit early--at -6:00pm---to chat beforehand)
Place: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie St, Vancouver, BC (the usual meeting place)
Topic: 'Tis better to give than receive!
For this topic, please bring a fountain pen that you received as a gift, as well as a fountain pen that you own and would recommend others buy as a gift for someone (up to a maximum of 2 pens per person total).
If you've never received pens as a gift (poor you :( then you can just bring up to 2 fountain pens that you would recommend others buy as gifts.

Many thanks to Bruce for this idea; we've never done it before, so I'm curious as to what our members will bring! Hope to see you at Perks on the 19th :)

Sunday, October 4, 2015

They don't make 'em like they used to....

Here's another pen photo from Christopher R, whose discerning taste in fountain pens has yielded a fine vintage pen collection.

This one is of a lovely Sheaffer fountain pen desk set ca. 1951 in Brazilian Onyx material. The sticker price for this gorgeous desk set was $20.00 back in '51, which translates to roughly $180.00 in the present day---a tidy sum! Sheaffer made a lot of desk sets in their day, but this is definitely one of the nicer ones.

( click on image to enlarge )


Many thanks, as always, Christopher, for your contributions to our site!

Saturday, October 3, 2015

October meeting - Thursday October 15, 2015

Date: Thursday October 15, 2015
Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm (members may arrive a little bit early--at -6:00pm---to chat beforehand)
Place: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie St, Vancouver (the usual meeting place)
Topic: Unique Writing Instruments (these can be fountain pens, mechanical pencils, rollerballs, ballpoints or dip pens, but please try to limit what you bring to 2 items).

Hope to see you there! No RSVPs required for any meeting held at Perks!

Friday, October 2, 2015

September meeting photos...finally!

Many thanks to all 22 VPC members (including our newest member, Jenny) who made it out to Perks pen store on Cambie Street for our September meeting. Our topic for the evening was "Your Oldest Working Fountain Pen" and we saw many lovely (and some rare examples) for this topic. I snapped some photos of them, so here we go....
(click on images to enlarge)

A very old but lovely Swan Safety eyedropper-filling fountain pen made ca. 1912-1913, brought in by Louise & Norm:
Christopher R's Paul E. Wirt fountain pen, circa 1907 or earlier, another lovely eyedropper-filling fountain pen:
Ben R's Sheaffer Balance oversize model in the 'Marine Green' colour, which was made from 1930-1935 (top pen) and a Parker Duofold vest pocket model (ca. 1929)
One of these pens is not like the other....
That's my (Maja's) Sheaffer ca. 1918-1919 flat-top in BCHR (Black Chased Hard Rubber) material on the far left, with the four pens shown in the above photos, along with a modern blue-marbled Waterman rollerball that Louise & Norm found recently for a great price and brought in for our secondary topic---Newest Acquisitions. Bravo!
The pen second from the right is my white TWSBI 'Eco' (a new acquisition for me) and the one on the far right is Bill K's oldest fountain pen--his Parker '45' flighter (all-metal) fountain pen, made in the 1960s. Not every pen brought in for our topic was close to celebrating its 100th birthday, as you can see! The '45' was Parker's longest-produced fountain pen model, having been in production from 1960-2007, nearly 50 years!
Mido brought in a gorgeous Waterman '54' made in the red rippled hard rubber material (ca. 1916) as his oldest working fountain pen.
A group shot of the pens thus described in this blog post, showing their relative sizes:
Alejandra's delightful daughter Natasha brought in her oldest working fountain pen, a blue piston-/vac-filling model of unknown origin ca.1960s. No matter who made it, it looked great... and it still writes!
Here's Natasha's fountain pen...
Peter brought in a Parker marbled Duofold made ca. 1932. It's shown next to Ben's Parker Duofold vest pocket model (the bottom pen), in the same lovely marbled pattern.
A Parker Vacumatic desk pen (bottom) and Louise & Norm's Waterman rollerball, two recent acquisitions by our members (I can't remember who brought in the Parker...Peter maybe??) that were incredible bargains as well.
Longtime VPC member Bruce R is a modern fountain pen aficionado, but he has one or two vintage pens and his oldest fountain pen is the copper Esterbrook "J" fountain pen shown here. The pen has a lever-filling mechanism and can be readily found on places like eBay and in antique stores due to its durability and popularity.
Bruce's Esterbrook with his two modernish Italian fountain pens---an OMAS and a Visconti.
Newer VPC member Erin brought in her oldest fountain pen, a Pelikan '400' in the Tortoise pattern, a classic German vintage fountain pen.
That's Natasha's little blue no-name fountain pen above the pen her mother Alejandra brought for our topic--a lovely Waterman 52 ½ V in BCHR (Black Chased Hard Rubber) ca.1920.
That's Bob W's stunning green Waterman Hundred Year fountain pen (made of Lucite--ca. 1939-1941) and brand-new VPC member Jenny's Parker Vacumatic in Golden Brown (ca. 1945) directly below it.
Penny brought in a variety of really great vintage fountain pens, but the oldest ones were her two Parker Duofold Juniors from the 1920s (the shorter black and green pens in the middle of the photo below):
Two vintage Waterman fountain pens in red rippled hard rubber, one is Mido's Waterman '54' and the other one is Charles' Waterman '52'. Gorgeous pens!
A nice group shot of some classic vintage pens from Europe and North America---starting from the top: a French-made Bayard, two Watermans, and three Sheaffers brought in by Stuart (from top to bottom: a Stylist, a Crest and a Tuckaway). Stuart's oldest pen was an all-metal Sheaffer ringtop (ca. 1918)---not pictured?
Our members did very well in acquiring some great pen bargains this summer! Charles found these three pens--- a Parker '51', a Parker '21' and a blue Esterbrook--- for a great price. Well done, Charles!
For some inexplicable reason, I forgot to photograph the two oldest working fountain pens brought in. They belong to Mark and are a Waterman taper cap eyedropper-filler and a MRHR (Mottled Red Hard Rubber) Waterman '12'. Both are from 1884-1899. My apologies to Mark! I'll see if I can photograph them at the October meeting...

TWSBI Eco fountain pen & ballpoint friends

Just some quick shots of my new fountain pen---a white TWSBI 'Eco'---and a few cool new ballpoints I recently acquired (~ click on photos to enlarge ~):

My TWSBI 'Eco' fountain pen, an economical model with a true piston-filling mechanism and nice 1.1 mm factory italic nib.
It's a very smooth writer, never has any start-up issues, and is light in the hand but doesn't feel unsubstantial. The cap on the 'Eco' is not meant to be posted, but the pen is long enough for me to use unposted comfortably. Official info here.
A shot of the TWSBI with my new Sheaffer '100' ballpoint, the "Aphrodite" pattern in the new Greek Mythology series.
This particular model is a lovely shade of pink, writes smoothly and and is nicely balanced. The '100' comes in a variety of colours and patterns, and when I saw this one, I knew I had to have it! Official info on the '100' line here.
A group shot -- my TWSBI 'Eco' with a cheerful orange Caran d'Ache '888 Infinite ballpoint' and a Faber-Castel "n'ice" ballpoint.
Both CdA and F-C make high-end fountain pens (Faber, under their Graf von Faber-Castell name) but they also manufacture economical, well-made ballpoints. Official website info here for the CdA pen and here for the F-C.
Many thanks to the Vancouver Pen Shop for selling me the ballpoints and for their excellent customer service :)

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Some photos from Christopher R's wonderful vintage pen collection


Many thanks to VPC member Christopher R. for his ongoing photographic contributions to our club's blog.

Here are some more photos from Christopher's wonderful vintage pen collection !
( ~~~ Click on individual photos to enlarge ~~~ )


(the last pen is a lovely vintage English brand called "Swan").
Note: Christopher sent me some more info on the Swan after I posted these photos. He says "This pen dates (from) 1946 and I was immediately drawn to it because it was the first production after the war and subsequently used the old plastics. The old plastics were much richer then the ones that replaced them in the late 40s..."